N OT long ago I spent an entire day with the recruIts of the Po- lice Academy. Every member of the Department, before beginning ac- tive duty, lnust take a three months' course which concentrates on physical training, classroom lectures, and visits to city institutions with which the police come into constant contact. I arrived at the school's centre of activities, at 72 Poplar Street, Brooklyn, shortly after nine 0' clock. Classes had already begun, and after the captain in charge had given rne permission to look on, I was hustled into one of them. A gaunt, black-jowled man whose insignia indicated that he was a police lieutenant stood on a platform at the front of the room. He paused in the midst of a question when I entered and waited until I took a seat in the back. Before me were the thick necks of the recruits, about sixty of them. They were dressed in khaki trousers and shirts, with black numerals sewed on their backs. Behind the lieutenant was a blackboard, and above it a sign which read, "Let us be Courteous and Civil under all Cir- cumstances. " To the right of the lieuten- ant, on a stand, was a scarlet fire-alarm box, and I was later told that it was used to den10nstrate how to turn in an alarm. "Now, O'Connell," the lieutenant resumed, "if a man's seriously injured and there's evidence of neglect that you don't see, do you lnake an arrest? " A recruit stood up and said, "\V ell, sir, I think- I think-" "Damn it," the lieutenant interrupted impatiently, "if there's evidence of neglect, if you see it or don't see it, you make an arrest. If a man falls off a building, or is hit by an auto, or any other damn thing, when there's evidence of neg- lect you make an arrest. \Vhy? Because it's a felony. \\There there's no neglect you make no arrest. Now, if someone's killed in an auto accident, do you make an arrest even if you didn't see it and there's no evi- dence of negligence?" A rookie raised his hand and h t d " y ,,, s ou e, es- The lieutenant was appar- ently exasperated. "You don't make an arrest. You just hold h . " h . d " B . h . 1m, e sat. nng 1m to the station house, if it's only for identification." This subtle dis- 42 A recruit raised his hand and said, ""That would you do, Lieutenant, if you were confronted with a big accident, eight or nine bodies in the street?" "Well, don't bust uut crying, that's all," the lieutenant said. "Remember, you can always call for assistance. You can get as much help as you need." "\Vhat do you do after you remove the bodies from the street?" another student asked. "Cover' em over with cloth. After the medical examiner gets finished with' em, take 'em to the morgue. Make a thor- ough search of their clothing but be sure you make it before witnesses. Other- wise, if there's anything missing, you'll be holding the bag, won't you?" He paused for a moment and then asked, "Now, is there any question? I know damn well that you don't know one hundred per cent what to do, so don't be afraid to ask questions." A recruit who spoke in a businesslike tone said, "Say there was a body right on the corner near here. \Vhat would you do with it?" "Put it in the school right here," the lieutenant said promptly. "vVhat if the school wasn't here?" "Put it up against the wall. Keep the crowd moving along." Another student raised his hand and asked, "Suppose a man's .head is off? J)o you have to have 'em pronounced dead by the medica] examiner? Do you have tu call an ambu- lance? I knew a cop once just called the morgue." The lieutenant, as these questions were being asked, strode impatiently up and down the platform. "Where do you get these silly ideas?" he asked. "Of course you call an ambu- lance. If a man's dead three weeks, we call an ambulance. Get these ideas out of your head that because a man's head is off you don't call an am- bulance. You call an ambu- lance and they notify the medi- cal examiner. \\Then I was a rookie a poor slob got dragged down the street by a horse. \Ve had to pick him up in a bag. But we had to call an ambu- lance and wait for it to come and then wait for the medical examiner to come and pro- nounce him dead." A recruit with another ques- tion had been waving his hand 1 " L . " h . J eager y. leutenant, e sal R.EPOR. TEl\. A T LAR. GE COPS-TO-ßé tinction puzzled one of the class, who asked, ""That's the difference between holding a man and arresting him?" The lieutenant seemed to feel that this fine point was needlessly irrelevant. "Why, you don't charge him with any- thing," he said indignantly. "You just hold him until an investigation's made." " Wh O f h ' " h at I e s pretty smart, t e re- cruit persisted, "and says he didn't do nothing and won't go along?" "Well, sOlne cops are pretty smart, too. Lissen here, you. You just be Slnart enough to hold your Slnart guy if sOlneone's been killed. The Dis- trict Attorney's liable to come along and think up a law you never heard of. Another thing" -the lieutenant bright- ened as he changed the subject-"when you're investigating an accident, get the names of the witnesses while they're hot. If you wait until they've told you all about it and then ask their names, some smart guys cool off and decide they don't want to be mixed up in it. Get their names first, while they're hot. Little psychology, that's all," the lieutenant said carelessly, as if he had thousands of these gems stored within him. He continued his discourse, ad vising the students always to remove bodies from the street but first to get a piece of chalk and lnark where the hodies lay. . . \J lfES'rIEJRN UNiON , - UJ VI G 4 I 1l II j I J / U _ ;: IY-/' 1'e d30 IBJ\ Yl I a :;./ Yow- t5- ;? =-== ONGRfSSMAN -roday .':1ø jt;:'1'1)$ ínll..f'.I ".. 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